Psychogeographical mapping of coincidence in Leeds and Dortmund. Drifting through superimposed narratives of two cities at once.

||| dortmund: steinwache memorial museum |||Built as a prison extension to Dortmund Police HQ in 1926-27, the Steinwache escaped any direct hits through the war. The building has had a varied history. It began as an acclaimed modern prison facility before becoming used for torture and incarceration of political opponents by the Gestapo between 1933-45. Post-war, it continued as a prison, before becoming a homeles shelter and then the Steinwache Memorial Museum in 1992. Also referred to as 'The castle at Steinplatz'.

When the Gestapo took over the prison in the summer of 1933, government
opponents were tortured and blackmailed into making confessions in a section
of the prison wing. Cell number 19, known to many as the isolation cell
or murder cell, was re-created for the exhibition. From 1933 to 1945,
a total of 65,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 of them for political
reasons. Numerous functionaries of political parties and labor unions,
representatives of the church, Jewish citizens, Gypsies (Roma) and foreign
forced laborers, all from the greater region of Arnsberg, were interrogated,
mistreated and detained in the Steinwache.
Many of those who were arrested were later deported to concentration camps.

With the arrival of the Gestapo at the prison in 1933, some of the cell
areas were - contrary to their original purpose - perverted to use for
torture and extortion of confessions from political opponents. During
the twelve years of Nazi rule, the Steinwache
became one of the most notorious places of torture in the German Empire
and achieved tragic fame as "West Germany's Hell". Between 1933 and 1945,
a total of 65,000 people were detained here, 30,000 of them on "political
grounds". Countless functionaries of political parties and trade unions,
representatives of the Christian Churches, Jewish citizens, Sinti and
Roma and foreign forced labourers were interrogated in the Steinwache,
maltreated and detained, some only for a few days or weeks, others for
months or years.

Many of those held were transported from the Steinwache
to concentration camps. It is not possible to estimate the numbers killed
as the Gestapo only recorded deaths until 1936. Until that year, 17 people
died of the consequences of torture. Despite the fact that the centre
of Dortmund, including the area around the main railway
station, sustained 90% damage through Allied bombing, the Steinwache
escaped any direct hits.

[This information is undated] A single breakout from the prison occurred.
Several forced laborers made the escape attempt. When a house beside the
Steinwache collapsed, they forced their
way out through a door. Their Gestapo guards were hiding in a shelter.
[It is not clear from the account what the outcome was]

In January 1945 the SS issued orders from Berlin to Duesseldorf which resulted in the mass execution of German and overseas workers, as well as political dissidents and opposition party representatives, in the closing days of World War Two.

Following the orders from Duesseldorf Gestapo officers in Dortmund rounded
up more and more people and took them to the police cells 'Steinwache'
and the Gestapo cells in the 'Benninghoferstrasse.'
In addition, forced labourers (Dutch, Belgian, French, Polish, Yugoslavian
and Russian) from all over the local government district of Arnsberg were
also brought to Dortmund.

The executions commenced from the 7th March 1945 onwards as lorries systematically
carried groups of prisoners to the fields in the Rombergpark
and the Bittermark (suburbs of Dortmund)
and Gestapo officers shot them. This continued until 12th April 1945,
when American soldiers were already in the near vicinity.

Shortly after Easter, the 150-strong Gestapo execution commando fled via
Hemer and Iserlohn for destinations all over the world. 27 of them were
brought to trial in Dortmund in 1951 and
1952. 15 of the accused were found not guilty and no-one was found guilty
of murder. However, 12 were found guilty of being accomplices to murder
and received between 2 and 6 years in prison.

Around 300 people - the exact number has never been established - were killed in the days over Easter 1945.

One of the victims was the resistance member Martha Gillessen (born 30.11.1901),
who took in a Jewish woman. She was betrayed by a comrade and arrested
by the Gestapo on 08. February 1945, along with many other resistance
members. A street in the north of Dortmund
is named after Martha Gillessen.